Roubaix Week: The Greatest Cycling Movie Ever Made
If the title of this post made you think “is it American Flyers?”, get the fuck outa here right now. Sure, Kevin Costner did a great job of playing a dying dufus on a bike, some other guy rode around in a cowboy hat and Eddy Merckx put in a memorable performance firing a gun, but while that all adds up to an entertaining package it still probably ranks somewhere well behind Quicksilver and just above BMX Bandits. Though that’s up for debate too.
While the Hell of the West race portrayed in Flyers is no doubt tough, the award for best cycling documentary ever goes to… A Sunday in Hell. Jorgen Leth’s acclaimed film of the 1976 Paris-Roubaix is cinematic excellence and cycling history, forever venerated on celluloid. It’s got it all: the plot set-up, behind the scenes tension, a mournful and tense soundtrack, occasionally glib narration, and the best shower scenes since Psycho. It really is a must watch.